The Impact Of Urban Legends Throughout History And Around The World

1749 words - 7 pages

The Impact of Urban Legends Throughout History and Around the World

Urban legends have always intrigued me. I am unsure if it is the scare factor that intrigues me, the way in which some of them are told, or some of the lessons that are supposed to be taken from them but one thing I know for sure is that I do not stand alone in this belief. In fact urban legends are told all over the world, even in countries that many have never heard of before. Many people of all backgrounds find them to be mystifying and sometimes even alarming. It seems as if urban legends have the ability to draw any person in ranging from a young child to the typical adult male. Whether or not you believe these incredible tales is almost irrelevant in many cases because for many different cultures and societies the primary purpose of urban legends are for entertainment and shock effects. This in many cases taken to the extreme with some of the different versions created to intensely horrify listeners.

The way in which I conducted research for my field report was quite simple. After I realized that I planned to do a report on urban legends, I went to the main library to look for a few books that I had already found online. After searching through the stacks for a good amount of time, I finally found the books that I was looking for and proceeded to check them out. Another source of information that I used in my report was from various notes that I had taken in class. These notes helped to formulate the overall idea I wanted to take with my field report. Still not exactly sure of what I wanted my title to be, I searched through the books I had checked out and took out any key ideas that I figured would be interesting to analyze. I wrote these ideas down and separated them into different categories to see what my overall theme should be. When I realized that I was gathering the most information regarding urban legends in different sections of the world and throughout different periods of history, I realized that the title for my report should have something to do with legends that have circulated throughout the world and impacted various cultures. With all of this information collected, I was able to begin to analyze my notes and findings.

While conducting my research, I found that urban legends have existed since the beginning of time in all different kinds of cultures and societies around the world. One example of this would be the Incas. The idea of urban legends in Inca society played a key role throughout many people's lives. Legends of early rulers in Inca society were some of the most common this clearly reflecting how important the rule of some of these leaders initially were. In fact it has been observed that "these urban legends reflect many of the preoccupations of the Incas-wars and alliances, imperial expansion and dynastic succession" (Cavendish 347). Other early legends originated in the West in classical Greek and Roman society. It has been...

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